I've come to the end of my Live journey because I'm tired...

[LoopStationZebra]

[Machinesworking]

lol. I am using that strip.

Check my jpg, a power strip is cool, this is further along that path.
one button at arms reach of the laptop turns on a power strip with all the hardware I use live.
The next button turns on the monitor system subwoofer and two powered speakers, the next turns on external hard drives, the next the PA. If I'm practicing a lot, but not writing it's a single button to turn on the practice set up. At most it's like running your fingers across keys to turn it all on. I'm not lazy about setting things up = I'm able to be lazy about starting things up.

^^^ This is a universal truth!

[madlab]

I never experienced as much problems as you. Now I'm on 10.5.8, with an ageing 828 or an x station as a soundcard, a nocturn, the x xstation and padkontrol as midi controllers and it works really well. Yes I'm tired with automap, although to be honest i haven't tried the latest version. But I know how you feel cause for some time, I just played guitar and sang and got much more pleasure that I did lately with Live.
I just bought MFL to try some new things, hope I won't get into too much trouble.